Traditionally, electronic device peripheral components (e.g., keyboards) have been connected to the electronic device via a cable. The specific details of the cables (e.g., type of connector, number of wires) has been dependent upon the components to be connected and often industry standards. A relatively recent development for connection of peripheral devices is the use of wireless protocols. Several protocols have been developed (e.g., Bluetooth) for relatively short-range applications such as communication between a computer system and one or more peripheral devices. Bluetooth protocols are described in “Specification of the Bluetooth System: Core, Version 1.2,” published October 2003 by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Inc.
Integration of Bluetooth and other wireless modules can present multiple challenges for desktop system designers and integrators. Challenges range from worldwide regulatory requirements, to problematic issues with mounting the module including cost effective integration of the antenna while ensuring sufficient performance. Current Bluetooth solutions typically include attaching a Bluetooth dongle to an external Universal Serial Bus (USB) port. However, this solution falls short in several ways including cost, lack of integration and ability to coexist with wireless network communications such as IEEE 802.11b/g.
IEEE 802.11b corresponds to IEEE Std. 802.11b-1999 entitled “Local and Metropolitan Area Networks, Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications: Higher-Speed Physical Layer Extension in the 2.4 GHz Band,” approved Sep. 16, 1999 as well as related documents. IEEE 802.11g corresponds to IEEE Std. 802.11g-2003 entitled “Local and Metropolitan Area Networks, Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications, Amendment 4: Further Higher Rate Extension in the 2.4 GHz Band,” approved Jun. 27, 2003 as well as related documents.